March 7 as World Leadership Day

On December 10, 2015 the Newport University CED, Latvia Board of Directors and the Members of the Academic Council resolve a Charter to establish Bangabandhu Institute and declare March 7th as World Leadership Day. In association with PRME (Principles of Responsible Management Education) of the United Nations Global Compact to celebrate this day at all the participant member institutions around the world.

“As set forth in the preamble of the Charter of the Newport University, Latvia that the World Leadership Day will be observing every year from March 2016 to promote the power inside leadership to inspire all the citizens around the world from all nations. The date represents the day in 1971 when the Bengali nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered his speech at the Ramna Race Course Maidan in Dhaka to a gathering of over two million people. In the speech he proclaimed, “Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence”. He also announced the civil disobedience movement in the province, calling for “every house to turn into a fortress”. The war eventually began 18 days later and the war finished in the same year December 16, in this war 3 million Bangladeshi people killed by the West Pakistani military. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the Father of the Nation and first Prime Minister of independent Bangladesh. Unfortunately, he was assassinated including all his family members except his two daughters, who were out of the country on August 15, 1975 by a Pakistan supported intriguer military group for reestablishing their lost power.”

“Considering that, through the declaration and proper celebration of a World Leadership Day, it would be possible to contribute to strengthening such ideals of leadership for Sustainable development and to alleviating the tensions and causes of conflict, both within and among nations and peoples.”

The World Leadership Day “is a day on which all member institutions around the world observe a minute of silence at 10 morning local time at their classes.”

Know How to Celebrate World Leadership Day at All Level of Educational Institutions around the World and Find the Principles of Leadership-

Education Resource Packet

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF MARCH 7, 1971 AND RISE OF BANGLADESH

Bangladesh, the then East Pakistan got independence as a sovereign state in 1971, after 9 months armed struggle with well-trained reputed Pakistan army, while in respect of the origin of independent Bangladesh , we should have the conceptual brief recount of the historical perspective, covering the broad socio-economic impulses and resulting political orientation of Muslims of the sub-continent are essential for understanding the process through which how Bangladesh became in to being and the basis of Bangladesh liberation war had developed.

Historically, Hinduism made its presence in this sub-continent mush before the faith of the Prophet that came after the cohorts of Genghis Khan. For 2 centuries the Muslim leaders ruled over the most India. The greatest difference between Hindu-Muslim understanding and relation were social and religious. Islam got popularity in the greater Bengal because of its tolerance and fraternity and could be able to draw millions of Hindus suppressed by cast culture.

When the British empire entered in the political power structure of the sub-continent after the Palassey debacle of Siraguddulah in 1757, the British ruler always haunted by a sense of apprehension that Muslims might venture to regain the power referring the Muslims alleged involvement in the Indian army mutiny of 1857.

Because of the above suspicion the British ruler did not give any opportunity to the Indian Muslims to the administrative and military cadre of the state organ even not in judicially while this short of deprivation were essential for the safety and welfare of the state which was designed as per British state policy and as per their psyche. In such situation, Hindus had bridged the gap between the ruling and ruled classes, as a result of which Muslims had been suffering from some kind of a complexity and refused a system which gave them no advantages over the people whom they so long ruled out.

Again, the ramification of Lord Cornwallis’s land settlement had far reaching impact in shaping the socio-economic fabric in the sub-continent. His administrative reforms spawned a zaminderi system under which majority Hindus became the zaminders and bulk of Muslims comprised the peasant cadre. In the light of this prevailing politico-economic situation Muslims set back in particularly in a socio-economic status, which brought them to the realization that changed their psyche and soon drove them to establish their rights. They became assertive about their religion and rights.

Bengal was the largest state of the undivided India. Administratively it was extremely difficult to manage its day to day operational affairs as a result of which Lord Curzon in 1905 had decided to make partitioning the greater Bengal in two parts, with a view to divide Hindu Muslim in the Bengal to act as the counter weight against the growing nationalist aspiration of India, dominated by the Hindus especially after establishment of the Indian National Congress in 1885. Actually Muslims were benefited by the greater Bengal partition, but this partition did not last long, because the negative role played by the Congress for its annulment. So, Muslims soon felt the necessity of a political platform to protect their own interests. In such situation, the Nawabs of Dhaka and some other north Indian Muslims, formed the Muslim League 1906 in Dhaka, where the Bengal Muslims assumed the leading role, leaders like Fazlul Haque, Hassan Shahed Suhrawardy, Khwaza Nazimuddin, Yousuf Ali Chowdhury, Moulana Vhashani and Moulana Rasool were noteworthy amongst them.

Under this situation, in the face of stiff Hindu opposition block, the newly appointed Viceray Lord Hardinge got both the Bengal united by the proclamation in 1911 as a result of which the University of Dhaka came in being in 1921 in spite of huge criticism from Calcutta based intellectuals. The University of Dhaka later played a significant role in the Pakistan movement.

The roots of Bangle Muslim leaders deeply attached to the class that had become subjected to genuine deprivation and exploitation for about more than hundred years by the Hindus. These had lead the Bengali Muslims turn out as a strong advocates of two nation theory that immerges later.

The historic Lahore resolution of 1940 moved by A K Fazlul Haque requested that the area in which the Muslims were numerically in majority as in the north-western and eastern zones of India should be groped to constitute independent states in which constituent unites should be autonomous and sovereign. When the political wisdom of A K Fazlul Haque rightly appreciate the geographical realities in framing the resolution, the land lord class and the Muslim elite who dominated the Muslim League condemned the plurality of states as a clerical mistake and amended it suitably in 1946 at the Delhi meeting of the Muslim League.

Again there was a marked difference in the psyche of Muslims from Bengal and their co-regionalist in UP and Punjab. The Bengali Muslims were comparatively perhaps less religiously fanatical and insular than their co-religionists in the north-central, northern and western part of India.

The dilution of Arab Islamic orthodox was particularly manifest in the Muslims of Bengal as most of them were converted from local Hindus, whereas in Sindh, Punjab’s and some extent Uttar Pradesh and Central Asian migrants comprised under demographic segments in the fundamental Muslim population. The Bengal Muslims on the other hand for obvious historical and cultural reasons had always been liberal in religious ethos.

Apart from this Bengali Muslims identity was deeply rooted in the composite Bengali culture, festively and powerful linguistic tradition of Bengal. They never preferred Urdu, Arabic or Persian as essential ornaments to emphasize their religious identity.

Basing on the two nations theory on August 14 – 15, 1947 respectively, Pakistan and India came up on the world map with Pakistan having its two wings one thousand miles apart across the Indian Territory. Surawardey had the greater contribution in implementing the two nation’s theory who was the Chief Minister of undivided Bengal until August 13, 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah before leaving for Pakistan removed Surawardey from the leadership of the Muslim League in East Bengal. It is believed that political talents of Surawardey forced Mr. M A Jinnah to take such decisions. Mr. M A Jinnah also kept other Bengali politician far away from his cabinet, so that he could take the full credit for the creation of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the party which fought for and own Pakistan fell in the hands of Muslim leaders who had joined Pakistan from the Muslim minority providence of India. The prominent of those being Mahammad Ali Jinnah and his Chief Liaquat Ali Khan, both formally were the residence of the then India. This might have caused Jinnah to rely more on the civil servants than the politicians on major policy decisions. After Jinnah’s demise in September 1948, Liaquat Ali Khan maintained the same traditions. Pakistan comprised to distinct far flung regions geographically connected by 100 miles of foreign territory named West and East Pakistan. West Pakistan was made up of a number of races including Panjabi, Sindhes, Pathans, Balochis. East Pakistan on the other hand was more homogeneous and had vast Bengali speaking populations.

Bangla ranks fourth out of the top 100 languages by the number of populations. Immediately after creation of Pakistan a conflict over the issue of official state language had begun to take shape. It was the simplest comprehension that the Bengalis of the Eastern wing would never accept any other language than Bangla. Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the other hand, was rather insensitive in supporting the demand of the refugees from the Indian states of Behar and Uttar Prodesh who insisted that Urdu be Pakistan’s official language. Such decision did upset the sentiment of Bengalis of East Pakistan. Which constituted 54% of the total population. The issue of language started transforming in a movement though quietly in the beginning but changed its form sharply to the eventual victory. The reaction of the Bengal people to Jinna’s such a declaration had been strong and spontaneous. The police open fire on February 21, 1952 on unarmed peaceful protestors causing tragic death to Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar and Salam. The language issue was settled leaving its wound deep in the hearts and minds of its people. Almost 50 years later as a matter of universal recognition the UNESCO declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day.

On the June 23, 1949 with the Awami Muslim League came up as the first opposition to the ruling Muslim League under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Vhashani. The party was formed to champion the rights of masses in Pakistan against the powerful feudal establishment lead by Muslim League. Awami Muslim League later was renamed as Awami League to make it popular and to accommodate minority communities. Basing on ideological difference this party was further split in to two parts, one headed by Awami League with Suharawardy and the National Awami Party under Maulana Vhashani. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman started his political career with the Muslim League and rose to the peak with Awami League in the subsequent years.

Due to the political uncertainties at the beginning of fifties among the Awami League and Muslim League leadership in the political arena, the civil and military brucrachy had been taking their opportunities and control over the administrative and operational aspects of government gradually.

The achievement of language movement of 1952 influence the mass vastly. Muslim League leadership gradually become alienated from the people and at the same time to achieve the political empowerment, Bengali leadership under Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Vhashani, Huseyn Shaheed Suharawardy and A K Fazlul Haque along with other same minded political parties got together and formed United Front on the basis of common minimum program in December 1953. They realized that in order to defeat Muslim League, it is necessary to mobilize the entire opposition in a single force.

The result of 1954 election between the major two parties namely United Front and Muslim League was conclusive. The United Front own 210 of the 237 member sits in the provincial assembly and obtained nearly 64% of the votes, were as the Muslim League holds only 10 sits and secured less than 27% of the votes pulled in the contested constituencies. The most significant aspect of the election was the defeat of several ministers including Mr. Nurul Amin, the Muslim League Chief Minister.

However, East Pakistan has been perusing a high degree of autonomy, with the central government controlling little more than foreign affairs, defense, communications and currency. This was not desirable by the Pakistanis to have a chief minister from East Pakistan who would threaten the existence of Muslim League in the overall power structure and reduce the control of the army on the Eastern wing. So, the government of 1954 election was dismissed to serve the purpose of the West Pakistan. Between 1952 and 1958 there had been, three East Pakistan leaders as the Prime Ministers which was the major reason to narrow down the differences and grievances between the people of two wings, but under this circumstances they could only play the puppet role due to the suppressive clutches of the military bureaucrats over administration.

On the October 7, 1958 President General Iskander Mirza declared martial law in Pakistan. Within a short of span of time, he was outstated by the counter crop through General Ayub Khan. During his reign West Pakistan was developed on the economy of Eastern wing with the proportionate development plan between the two wings. General Ayub also abrogated the constitution; the national and provisional assemblies were dissolved all political activities were banned. Numbers of political leaders including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were put in jail. Ayub Khan introduced the so called basic democracy which totally relied on military bureaucracy, substituting direct elections with an electoral college. Despite of handicaps, Awami League continued functioning, secretively for a possible movement against the Ayub government. Soon an opportunity presented itself when the government arrested Suhrawardy in June 1962. The news of the arrest spread like wild fire; the student came out to the street. The Presidential election was held on January 2, 1965 on the basis of basic democracy. Despite the meager chance of winning the election under such a situation, the opposition decided to fight it out jointly. With this end of view and under the auspices of Awami League a united Front named Combined Opposition Party was formed on July 21, 1964. Miss Fatema Jinnah was nominated the candidate of this alliance for the Presidential polls. Although Miss Jinnah lost in the election, her election campaign created a lot of stair in the public and exposed anti people character of the so called basic democracy system.

After 1965 Indian Pakistan war broke out Sheikh Mujibur Rahman earned political repute and knocked the power based on West Pakistan when he declared the 6 points programs in 1966. Subsequently 1968 to jeopardize the growing political movement, Pakistan government sued Agartala conspiracy case against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman including 34 others. While the trail was on in 1969, co-accused Sargent Jahurul Haque was killed in prison by the Pakistani sentries. In another incident in February 18, 1969 Dr. Zoha, Professor of the Rajshahi university was gun down by Ayub military. As a result an explosive political development occurred which lead to freed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other political leaders. The venue of the Agartala historical trail was located in the heart of Dhaka cantonment, where the Bijoy Keton Liberation War Museum had been established. The Six Point movement of 1966, the mass upheaval of March 1968 to 1969 and their attendant repressions progressively reinforced the spirit of Bengali nationalism.

In the face of mass movement Ayub Khan handed over the power to Yahya Khan in March 24, 1969. Yahya spelt out it clearly in his 26 March, 1969 broadcast to the nation that he had no ambition other than the creation of candidates conductive to the establishment of a constitutional government. On 30 March, 1970 Yahya announced the conditions under which, issuing a legal frame work in order to hold the national and provincial elections.

In December 1970 the general election was held and Awami League won a stunning victory winning 160 out of 162 seats in East Pakistan. Awami League also won a similar landslide victory in the provincial assembly election it overall owned 288 seats out 300. The net result was Awami League emerged as the single majority party in the national assembly with 167 seats out of the total of 313. On the other hand Julfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party owned 88 seats (all from the Western wing) and emerged as the second largest party. Constitutionally Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was supposed to take over as Prime Minister of undivided Pakistan. But many in the military hierarchy including the Director General of the powerful Inter-Service Intelligence could not accept the election result. According to Rao Farman Ali, twelve generals of Pakistan army were against handing over the power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Bhotto assumed political control in West Pakistan and was not ready to sit in the opposition. The post-election politics appeared to be a power struggle between Bhotto and Sheikh Mujib with military played the role of arbitrator. All the political parties in West Pakistan including Bhotto agreed that legally Awami League could frame a constitution as it was the majority party but without making some concession for the Western wing, it would be a barren exercise. As none of the parties achieved majority in both wings so that the players from the West Pakistan capitalized on that to bargain for power sharing which intensified struggle between Yahya, Mujib and Bhotto. Disillusioned Yahya accepted Bhotto’s opinion. Sheikh Mujib was defiant and Bhotto was power hungry, Sheikh Mujib was not ready to accommodate Yahya too, who was aspiring to stay on as the President. President of Pakistan met the governors and Martial law administrators on February 22, 1971 discreetly in Rawalpindi. After that Major General Khadim Hossain Raza of 14 Infantry Division stationed in Dhaka and Major General Rao Farman Ali devised an operational plan “Blitz”. This operation basically aimed at ensuring strict enforcement of Martial Law.

On the March 1, 1971 General Yahya announced his postponement of National Assembly for indefinite period. Such a postponement favored Bhotto at the expense of Sheikh Mujib. On March 3, 1971 convening of the National Assembly was postponed till March 25, 1971 leading to an outcry throughout the Pakistan. Violence broke out in Dhaka, Chittagong, Shylet, Khulna, Rajshahi and Comilla. The security force killed many unarmed protesters. There was an open call for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahman to declare independence from Pakistan. Considering the military preparedness insight Dhaka cantonment, it was not feasible to declare the independence neither it was possible to ignore the call of public sentiment. So, Awami League called a large public gathering at Dhaka’s Ramna Race Course on March 7, 1971 to respond to a gathering of over two million people. The speech Bangabandhu delivered on March 7, 1971 was not a written one, but the articulation of the theme content and wording had been appropriate although chosen instantly. In the speech he proclaimed, “Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence”. He also announced the civil disobedience movement in the province, calling for “every house to turn into a fortress”. This was the unofficial declaration of the Independence of Bangladesh. However, Bangabandhu, Bhatto and Yahya Khan held negotiation in Dhaka in late march 1971 in a final attempt to defuse the growing crisis, simultaneously General Tikka Khan who was commanding the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan, prepared a contingency plan for a military take over. As it was the talks broke down and on March 25, 1971 Yahya Khan flew back to West Pakistan and Bhotto followed him the next day.

It was the beginning of an end- this disintegration of Pakistan following a ceaseless struggle. The moment prior to March 1971 was found completely on the policy of the constitution and non-violence. The war eventually began 18 days later and the war finished in the same year December 16, in this war three million Bangladeshi people killed by the West Pakistani military. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the Father of the Nation and first Prime Minister of independent Bangladesh.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Dixit, J. N. Liberation and Beyond. Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 1999. p, 1.
2. Collins, Larry and Dominique LaPierre. Freedom at Midnight. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1976. p, 23.
3. ibid. p, 24.
4. ibid.
5. Hunter, W. W. The Indian Musalmans. Dhaka: Bamalipi Mudrayan, 1975. p, 148.
6. ibid. p, 160
7. ibid 1.
8. ibid 6. p, 141.
9. Haider, Abul Kashem and Sohel Mahmud. Bangladesher Unnayaner Etihash: Nawab Salimullaha theke Khaleda Zia [History of Bangladesh Development: From Nawab Salimulah to Khaleda Zia], Dhaka: Panorama Publications, 1999. p, 41.
10. ibid 1. p,8.
11. ibid.
12. Mascarenhas, Anthony. The Rape of Bangladesh. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd, 1971. p, 18.
13. Azad, Abul Kalam. India Wins Freedom. Hyderabad: Orient Longman Limited, 1959. p, 248.
14. Maniruzzaman, Talukder. The Bangladesh Revolution and Its Aftermath. Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 1988. p, 14.
15. Riza, Shaukat. The History of Pakistan Army (1966-71). Lahore: Wajidalis (Private) Limited, n.d. p, 9.
16. Matinuddin, Kamal. Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis, 1968-1971. Lahore: Wajidalis (Pvt) Limited, 1993. p, 51.
17. Bangladesh AL. n.d.15June 2015.<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Awami_League>.
18. ibid 14. p, 6.
19. ibid. p, 7.
20. ibid. p, 8.
21. ibid.
22. Niazi, A.A.K. The Betrayal of East Pakistan. lstBangladesh ed. Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2000.
23. Mahmudullah, ed. Bangladesher Sadhinota Juddher Itihash o Dalilpatra (1905-1971) [The History and Documents of Bangladesh Liberation War], Dhaka: Gotidhara, 1999. p, 215.
24. ibid 14. p, 234.

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